We are a generation of children raised in the aftermath of events we were too young to understand, but old enough to inherit. If you’re in your 20s right now, you know that our lives have been shaped by forces we didn’t choose, but had to understand anyway.Â
Wars, natural disasters, recessions, and attacks flickered on our screens as we grew up. We didn’t understand the politics behind it. We only knew the feeling: the air becoming still, adults whispering under their breaths, and the sudden awareness that something was not right. We learned the language of crisis before we were old enough to drive.Â
The Iraq War began the same year that many of us were born. The War on Terror was headline news, but to us, it was background noise. We didn’t understand the intense airport security lines or the fear and grief that soldiers faced across the ocean. The country was permanently on edge, yet we had no idea.Â
When we were old enough to enter elementary school, the Great Recession hit. Parents whispered about layoffs as foreclosed signs adorned homes and businesses. We grew up in households shaped around financial caution, constantly being told to “Pick a stable career,” and that “Debt is dangerous.” The economic anxiety of the late 2000s became the air we breathed.Â
By the time we reached high school, mass shootings were normalized. Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Uvalde, and Parkland instilled fear into our daily lives within the places we learned. Our psyche dramatically shifted, and we were no longer shocked when we went on lockdown. We were taught where to hide before we were old enough to learn algebra.Â
We entered young adulthood just as COVID-19 hit. Many of us celebrated milestones in isolation, missing birthdays, graduations, weddings, and funerals. We had to watch as our futures stalled in real time.Â
It would be easy to say that we grew up in chaos, but that’s not the truth. We grew up aware. To be in your 20s right now is to possess a rare kind of consciousness. We do not have the luxury of naivety, as we forego it without even realizing it. But all this chaos created something extraordinary in our generation.Â
We understand systems because we’ve seen them strain. We question narratives because we’ve seen them collapse. We value mental health because we’ve felt a collective anxiety across our entire existence. Some older folk may say we’re dramatic, but I believe that we’re calibrated to history.Â
Unlike Millennials, we don’t remember the times “before.” Unlike older Gen Z, we don’t remember the transition. All we know is the aftermath. Politics has always felt tense, economic security has always been fragile, and climate change has always been impending. We’ve never known a political climate that wasn’t polarized, a media environment that wasn’t completely overwhelming, or a future that felt fully guaranteed.Â
However, we adapted to navigate these issues. We became conscious about everything earlier than many generations before us, not because it was trendy, but because it was unavoidable. While the ability to assume stability has never been present, we still dare to imagine change.Â
We were born into war, raised in recession, educated in lockdown, and graduated in a pandemic. Yet, we are still here. We were not handed a stable world, but rather an unfinished one, and that may be why our generation feels things differently. We question everything and are unwilling to accept being told that “that’s just how it is.” We have seen how fast things can fall apart, even if we do not remember the first fracture.
We are not a generation that was shaped by collapse. We are a generation that was shaped by response. We have the drive and determination to redesign the systems we were born into. We roll with the punches, even when they keep coming, because we understand that the world is malleable. We understand that we have the power to build structures that move us in the right direction. And there is nothing more powerful than a generation that knows the world can break at any moment, but chooses to build anyway.